Africa recorded remarkable economic growth in the first 15 years of the 21st century, largely because of positive trends in the export of primary commodities, among other factors. However, this narrative of "Africa Rising" was skewed from the onset, as it focused mostly on economic growth based on gross domestic product (GDP), which is overly one-dimensional.
In fact, the economic growth did not generate social inclusion through employment creation, thus failing to derive benefits from the demographic dividend of Africa's youthful population. Coupled with this, since the 1970s, policy making in most post-independence African states has equated managing poverty with development, as opposed to socioeconomic transformation.
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